


November 2008 FicBIts

by Merfilly



Category: DCU (Comics), Superman (Reeveverse)
Genre: Request Meme
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-11-30
Updated: 2008-11-30
Packaged: 2018-01-13 06:32:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,263
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1216156
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What it says on the tin</p>
            </blockquote>





	November 2008 FicBIts

_Germany, the past_

The little boy sat up a little straighter as his mother came into the room, having signed all the papers. He was ready to go home, ready to be away from the smells and sights of a military hospital. His mother looked at him and nodded, pain evident in her eyes to see the light gauze still around his throat. She could tend that, could keep the area clean and free of infection in the mostly healed stitches.

"Come along, Joseph," she said, picking up his small bag. "We have a flight to catch."

His brow furrowed; he wanted to go home, not on a flight. She caught the puzzlement, and braced herself to tell him.

"We're moving. Away from here. To my home in England."

He started to ask why, one of the few words he had picked up from his sign language classes already. He did not understand why they could not go home, when his daddy had killed the bad men. His father had to be hunting the rest of them, if there were more, since he hadn't come to see him. Joey knew his mother was upset at his father, but that was another thing he couldn't understand. 

He took his mother's hand though, and moved out of the hospital room with confusion at war with the joy to escape.

* * *

They always said giving up was the easy part. That letting the world slide by while you hid was the coward's way. They were wrong.

He was paralyzed by the fear of hurting his loved ones, but when he fell into his bed at night, he saw all the things happening in the world that he wasn't out there stopping.

The torment rode his soul, until she showed up and knocked the sense in his head. What right did he have to give up, to walk away?

Even if it would mean the end of all he knew, he had to fight. 

He was Kon-El, and it was as much in his blood as the possibility of hurting his loved ones. And his will to be a hero, his choice, had to be stronger than any possible malice in his heart.

* * *

"They sell pajamas like your outfit. For kids."

"Ain't nothing wrong with my outfit."

Tommy made a scoffing noise, a half-grin on his lips. "You're a grown man, Dad, running around in a giant cat suit. Complete with ears and whiskers."

Ted looked at his irreverent son, shaking his head. "Think you're the first to try and poke fun at it? Not hardly. 'Sides...should count yourself lucky."

"Oh?"

Ted pointed to the tiny little woman in the ring right now proving that invulnerability and super strength weren't everything in the world to Karen. "Living up to whiskers and ears ain't half the mess of finding fishnets like she's got to deal with."

"Point," Tom said, more than willing to stare at the legs cased in said fishnets for the moment.

* * *

They always said the firsts were always the hardest. Certainly their first anniversary had all but torn Dinah apart. So had his birthday, and her own. Larry was always one to remember those days with a gift, a dinner, or sometimes, when money got very tight, just by taking her for a moonlight walk.

Now, with Thanksgiving approaching, Dinah found herself all but creating disasters to attend rather than dwell on the holidays. She RSVP'd that she would be at the annual dinner, and chided herself for praying something spectacular broke out to take her mind off the fact Larry would not be home when it was over.

`~`~`~`~`

No one failed to note the small beauty, and Black Canary was quite sure Green Lantern had mentioned the loss of her husband to all the JLA, from their kindness and way of pausing before finding just what they wanted to say, trying not to remind her.

All except Green Arrow, who found a moment to catch her alone.

"I heard of your loss, Miss Canary," the bowslinger said softly. "My condolences. He must have been a mighty fine man to have your heart."

The Black Canary felt the lump form in her throat, the heave of her chest that still missed her sometimes overzealous husband, with his quirks and manners and crooked grin.

"Thank you. Thank you very much." She really noticed Green Arrow, so young like all his teammates then, and tipped her head to the side. "Would you care to keep me company at dinner?"

"I'd love to, Miss Canary." 

His smile was a little lopsided too, and that suited the little fighter perfectly fine.

* * *

"No cheating!" 

"Like you won't!"

The two boys raced neck and neck, as the shorter of the pair tried to figure out how to glare and still win the prize. Tim pushed himself harder, running like his life might depend on it.

The taller one had to ignore that little urge to just 'reach' and maybe make the ground uneven with a TTK bump.

"Don't even!" the shorter boy snapped at Kon, before putting one last bit into it, reaching the plate before his taller friend. As he contently picked up the last cookie, he realized he didn't have the breath to actually eat it, and the look on his friend's face was both admiring and surprised. "Maybe I can share," he managed between wheezes as he broke it in half and passed a piece to his best friend.

* * *

Diana could hardly wait for the return of the brave fighters. The woman who could bend steel and deflect bullets was not a weak woman, and refused to give into the case of nerves threatening so many of the women waiting. She was a warrior herself, but this mission had been one for the Soldiers, the Airmen, the Sailors, the Marines. She waited, and watched, hand shading her eyes.

She gave the cry of welcome almost as the Air Traffic Tower confirmed the inbound Hercules Class planes, the fighter jets, the Chinooks. Their air fleet was nearly home, and soon, her Steve would be in her arms again, to celebrate peace through victory one more time.

* * *

Things had never been the same, not since the day Slade Wilson had tried to cold-bloodedly murder the returning Raven. That had been the start, as far as anyone who knew him knew, of the man's turn to such violent crimes that no one, not even his children, could view him in any kind of positive light.

But right then, though confusion reigned in the eyes of the League Chairwoman, he wasn't all bad. Not when his methods had just saved her life, and the life of the teammates with her, if she took the opening he had given her. She vaulted over Grodd's corpse, taking off for the others, his soft words echoing for later introspection.

"I never do forget what I claim, Little Bird."

* * *

He forgot one thing more important than any argument the Jor-El holo had used. More important than anything his mother's holo might have argued...or maybe she would have, if it had not been for her wish for him not to be alone.

The lesson he forgot, when he asked to be human, was the one his Earth parents taught him. There was little a single man could do in his time on the Earth, but if he gave more than he took, he would leave it a little better than before.

Clark would never forget that, when temptation of self-fulfillment warred with his sense of right.

* * *


End file.
